NEW YORK, Dec 15- Healthcare companies including Aetna Inc, Mercer and Towers Watson& Co have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build exchanges that allow company employees to buy their own insurance, betting that Corporate America wants to get out of managing workers' health benefits. By last year, blue chip names such as Sears Holding Corp and Walgreen...

NEW YORK, Dec 15- Healthcare companies including Aetna Inc, Mercer and Towers Watson Co have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build exchanges that allow company employees to buy their own insurance, betting that Corporate America wants to get out of managing workers' health benefits. By last year, blue chip names like Sears Holding and Walgreen Co had...

Actavis Plc, Gilead Sciences and other biotechs were among the biggest drivers, a day after Allergan agreed to be bought by Actavis. Shares of Actavis were up 8.7 percent at $269.60, helped by bullish analyst notes, while Gilead's stock rose 3.3 percent to $103.71 percent. "A little bit of a risk trade is coming back on, and those are the areas for the M&A," said Uri...

Actavis Plc, Gilead Sciences, Celgene and other biotech names were among the S&P 500' s biggest drivers, a day after Allergan agreed to be bought by Actavis. The S&P health care index was up 1.6 percent, while shares of Actavis were up 8.3 percent, Gilead's rose 3.3 percent and shares of Celgene were up 2.4 percent. Helping Actavis were bullish analyst notes.

Members under the Medicaid health plans increased 28 percent to 2.3 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, driven by additions in Florida, Kentucky and Georgia under the federal health insurance program for lower-income people, Wellcare said. Medicaid expansion has also helped other insurers such as UnitedHealth Group Inc, Centene Corp and Cigna Corp..